Motörizer

Does a Motörhead album even require a review anymore? Isn't this a band above and beyond the criticism of mortals? I mean, this is a band whose legacy is just as reliable as any religion on earth. Maybe for some this band IS a religion. The religion of REAL heavy fucking metal, without any regard for trends or any sort of acceptance. The band does what it does, and survives entirely on the merits of that. Motörizer is no exception to the rule. No exception to their rule. The Iron Fist is 20 studio albums deep with this, and there is no sign of slowing or pissing off.

Thank fuck.

Lemmy and crew lay down the dirty from the very opening grit of the "Runaround Man". Then, in true tradition, you get the mid-paced, total fucking rock out "Teach You How to Sing the Blues" that makes beer bottles go flying through the air to smash into the nearest hard surface, whether that's a street, a wall, or a person's head. It's all fair in love and war.

'Can you still get it up,
Or are we pushing too hard,
If you wanna get your hands on a beautiful girl,
You gotta use a Mastercard.'

I mean, seriously, that's awesome. These guys aren't fools, they've seen a lot over the years. They are old men, and they know it. It doesn't stop the "Rock Out", with its "Ace of Spades" vibe. The bad ass blues of "One Short Life". Or the total kick ass "English Rose". Ladies and bangers, money can still buy you happiness, and that usually comes in the form of a Motörhead record. Don't miss out.

-autothrall
http://www.fromthedustreturned.com

All readers of this review will I'm sure accept that Lemmy is the one true King of all that is rock n' roll and so not require me to sell his virtues, but just to do so anyway, here again is the King with his long-time backers Phil Campbell and Mikkey Dee on what is now the 20th studio album of the quintessential Motörhead. Quite understandably for a band as experienced as Motörhead, their form has come and gone since 1977's self-titled debut LP but the last few releases have seen a renaissance of the band if such a thing can be said, resulting in yet another hard-rocking belter in "Motörizer" that belies Mr. Kilmister's 63 years (!) and adds another reason for their God-like status.

Just consider the fact that in tunes like the body-shaking "English Rose", the down'n'out punk/speed metal of "Rock Out" and the sleaze of "Runaround Man", Motörhead have penned more fantastic anthems of rock whilst having barely altered from the rigid formula perfected in over 30 years of music-making is a huge achievement. In a world where countless styles have come and gone in such a time to have one band steadfastly walking their own path and ignoring everything else is an astounding testament to Motörhead and is the main reason why "Motörizer" rocks harder than anything released today by guys a third of Lemmy's age. Little differs in the make-up of "Motörizer" against albums such as "Ace Of Spades" where the same gravel-throated Lemmy curdles out his tales of rock, love and personal pride except for a sharper tone from Campbell's guitar that serves to add extra grit and spite to "Heroes" and "Teach You How To Sing The Blues". Drummer Mikkey Dee, perhaps less influential in the momentum of the band these days than Phil "Philthy Animal" Taylor of the classic Motörhead period, is however so solid that one barely notices him pummeling away in the background, providing the backbone upon which Campbell and Kilmister's riffs clatter along.

By virtue of their recording in a distant era, the likes of "Ace Of Spades" and "Killed By Death" will never be equaled, leaving Motörhead to carry on penning an album of tunes in the name of "Motörizer" that possess more than enough strength to hold their own against such rock landmarks. There is no need for a scrupulous study on the finer points of any Motörhead record but rest assured that if you are reading this as a diehard Motörfreak or a convert-in-waiting, there is no way you will be let down by "Motörizer". Long live the King.

Originally written for Rockfreaks.net

The institution that is Motörhead is one that never fails to please. They're the Old Faithful of Heavy Metal, never releasing anything sub-par and never faltering in their one-track minded formula to deliver some of the best Rock music on this whole fucking planet. Lemmy has gone through three decades of his craft, and he has perfected it to a fine sheen, having gone through several dozens of band members and experiments to figure out what worked for him. While the exact number of this new album in their discography is unknown (experts are currently sifting their way through the catacombs of the Temple of Motörhead, avidly searching for it), any hesitant listeners can be assured that Lemmy and his Motörhead crew have delivered another winner with their tried-and-true formula on Motörizer.

Like every Motörhead album, Motörizer features a different mood and attitude than the last one. The attitude is always present and obtuse in its carefree, blunt nature, but it takes on new forms with each album. I missed the previous album Kiss of Death, but Motörizer is a more catchy, upbeat affair marked by a pummeling, cut-throat guitar tone, a heavy, hooky batch of riffs, and the catchiest bunch of choruses on this side of Tinnitus Sanctus. People will tell you that this is too simple and too straightforward, but the songwriting here is actually spot-on. There is, after all, an art to simplicity, as well, and how can anyone not love songs like "English Rose," "Runaround Man," "The Thousand Names of God" or "Back on the Chain" after hearing Lemmy's unforgettable charismatic tone meshing in with the grooving, gritty riffage and rock-solid back beats? It's pure magic, and extremely refreshing in its familiarity, at that.

This is just balls-out, no-frills rock music the way it was meant to be played, and Lemmy never stops delivering throughout the album's entire 40 minute duration. There aren't really any darker or moodier tunes here, with every song generally sticking to a more uplifting and happy sort of tone that I just dig. We need more music like this these days, and less of Opeth, Biomechanical and Human Fortress. Motörizer is a feel-good album for the ages, boasting commendable power and a set of eleven solid, wickedly good tunes that you won't be able to get out of your head any time soon. May Motörhead live long and keep rocking all the way. Definitely one of my favorite albums of 2008.

Originally written for http://www.metalcrypt.com

Just like "Kiss Of Death"...
...this album starts off with 3 really good songs, but the first true highlight is song number four. I have to say though that the KOD - songs are just a little stronger, which also means that although "Rock Out" (including a (probably copyrighted) bass - intro by Mr. Kilmister) is a fantastic song, it's not quite an all-time classic like KOD's "Trigger".

Just like on "Kiss Of Death"...
...the fifth song is probably the weakest track on the album. Although "One Short Life" (which even sounds like "Under The Gun") is an above average song, it's still the low point of "Motörizer".

Unlike "Kiss Of Death"...
...this album doesn't include a ballad, which, considering my affinity for Motörhead - ballads, is more than sad.

Unlike "Kiss Of Death"...
...the second half of "Motörizer" basically consists of hits only: "Time Is Right", the driving "Buried Alive", which sounds like a slightly slowed down version of "Red Raw" (from 2002's "Hammered"), the "Damage Case"-like "Back On The Chain", the anti-war hymn "Heroes" (which could become Saxon's second "Crusader", in case they should ever decide to cover it...) and, finally, Lemmy's favourite "The Thousand Names Of God".

Just like on "Kiss Of Death"...
...the most melodic track is not only one of the best tracks on the album, it's one of the best Motörhead tracks ever, plus (see the above-mentioned similarities between "Under The Gun" and "One Short Life") "English Rose" is highly reminiscent of its KOD - counterpart "Christine".

Just like on "Kiss Of Death"...
...(and "Inferno") this album was produced by Cameron Webb, which is great, because he did a fantastic job again, but on the other hand the charm and the uniqueness of each Motörhead album is also very much due to the different producers who have worked for Lemmy & Co. over the years. Therefore I think my favourite three-piece should consider a change of producers for the next album before they are in danger of becoming too predictable.

"Motörizer" is not quite the milestone that "Inferno" was, but it is better than its (doubtless good) predecessor "Kiss Of Death" (especially the second half of the album is exceptionally strong) and shows this band in impressive form - on their twentieth studio album! I'm impressed!

Alright pals, grab some beer and gather: Motörhead has returned with a striking vengeance. “Motörizer” stands as the group’s umpteenth production after three decades of relentlessly rocking against norms naysayers tried to impose, providing classic albums and years of consistency, but these aged individuals have no trouble stomping their competition into dust once again. Gimmicks are deceased while chaos runs amok, yet standards are encumbered beneath Motörhead’s stellar form not looking to push limits, but striving for hard rock/heavy metal that sings of steel credibility as you’d expect. Lemmy and his gang of leather-dressed rockers are once again hailed kings of hard rock, but after all, Lemmy IS God, correct?

What’s there to foresee? Come on, you know exactly what: ripping heavy metal like Lemmy and the gang always conjure up. With fast and crushing numbers like “Runaround Man,” Motörhead delivers wonderfully diversified compositions stretching into rabid collections of bass-thumping madness. As usual, Phil Campbell effortlessly shreds his guitar in two while Mikkey Dee blunders his percussion set into oblivion; however, “Motörizer” is not a typical release in terms of blatant quality, because its whole experience takes Motörhead’s usual accommodations beyond ballsy rock. To think of how aged this band is, and how they can maintain core writing abilities is simply amazing. Truly, Motörhead is a polite faction in a not-so-polite world.

Oh Lemmy, why can you do no wrong? Your rusty yelps are impeccable again, even at the age of sixty three! His bass licks also represent timeless functions applying rapid stints upon classic speed-ridden tunes like “Rock Out,” that are essentially just what you’d expect from these guys: heavy, loud, and stuffed with girth. Formally, things also lean into new directions musically, such as epic slabs demonstrated on the godly “Heroes” or “When the Eagle Screams.” Still, slower, blues-influenced tracks like “One Short Life” don’t let up on entwining Motörhead’s genius with overt worshiping of genres obscure to metal, yet that doesn’t stop the anthem from becoming a fine slab of mid-paced rock. They just aren’t back, they’ve returned to their glory days!

Featuring heavy guitars and a few large moles, “Motörizer” stomps the balls off of many old-timers still forcing records due to their previous status. Motörhead, on the other hand, knows how to make magic happen, thus enchanting this effort way beyond expectations. So in conclusion, we have another Motörhead diamond after years of suicidal activity, and the thought of a well-aged band contributing consistent tunes makes “Motörizer” more than an album; it’s conceptually fantastic regardless of tone, albeit diversely powerful. Only fools will neglect what this timeless squad has offered upon the year 2008, so grab a beer, pick up some smokes, and idolize what Lemmy’s billionth brainchild of unprecedented fitness accurately delivers: unbreakable heavy metal.

This review was written for: www.Thrashpit.com

Because you bought yet another Motörhead album! Another £10 pound safely into Mr Kilmister's pocket, which he can spend on sherbet lemons, wagon wheels and whatever else the kids are into these days. You could have bought that copy of Benny Hill's Guide to Exotic Spiders you've been hankering for, but another forty minutes of rock 'n' roll from the masters just caught your evil eye. You knew Motörizer wouldn't offer much new or anything that has the band branching out like a shrubbery fueled by Special Brew and fags... but faithfully, you fed the money to the spotty and impressively fringed youth and subsequently got your rocks off, because at heart you're just a geriatric grebo trapped inside the body of an 300 year old hermaphrodite.

I have one bone to pick with Motörizer; the guitar sound is often a bit plain. Kiss of Death, though not perfectly produced, had a great mid-range crunch to the guitars but here things are just a little too drab in the rhythm sound. Phil Campbell has a great guitar sound live and on previous records (1916 and even the otherwise ropey Snakebite Love spring to mind) he sounded huge, but this is quite flat sounding. Not a horrid guitar sound by any means, just when you've got a guitarist with a killer signature sound why not let him shine? It's pretty clear that Cameron Webb is no Vic Maile, I for one would like a change in producer for next album, though the boys are probably set in their ways and probably don't want a change... I mean Phil taking his hat off last year was quite enough of a shock. Still the bass and drums sound pretty good on this one. Mikkey has never quite captured his live sound but recording at Dave 'No More Mr Nice Guy' Grohl's studio gives him a clear and round tub thumping sound. Thankfully, Lem's Stuka bass drone is still intact and he certainly hasn't had a change of heart and decided playing fretless slap bass is cool too - the Rickenbacker of Doom still slaughters its competition... not that it ever had any.

Things are kicked off with a bit of nonsensical, babbling fun in 'Runaround Man'. We get the same sort of riffs that Phil has been churning out since 'Sacrifice', but invigorated and the end result is immensely infectious. The first thing that struck me is that Lemmy's lyrics are a lot sharper here, he seems to recovered a lot of his deft wit. I've listened to this album quite a few times now and I can't find the words monkey and funky in a rhyming couplet anywhere, so that's a certain bonus. 'Teach You How to Sing the Blues' is a fairly quirky number for the band, something about it just feels a little different. I'm sure if Queens of the Stone Age put this one out and had that tall ginger fellow who used to be good drawl over it, it'd be a massive hit... but this is Motörhead, you know, that band that does 'Ace of Spades' and hasn't put out an album since. But, ginger tall fellows sell and the NME is my Qur'an and is placed higher than all other literature on my shelf, except my copy of Harry Potter signed by Dio. But yes, back to the album at hand, 'Teach You How...' is an insanely catchy low-end drone. If I was to notice a theme running through this album it would be the sheer level of catchy choruses. Lemmy has really outdone himself here. 'Kiss of Death' was no slouch for sing-along rockers, but Motörizer just seems more assured. It's almost poppy - albeit in a cunning way - but what else would you expect from a bloke who actually remembers rock 'n' roll?

You can't really accuse Motörhead of stagnating and repeating a winning formula with a song like 'Rock Out', I mean I've never heard anything quite like it. But then again my dementia is getting pretty bad. Ok, it's a blatant retreat of the 'Motörhead'/'Ace of Spades'/'Iron Fist'/'We are Motörhead' formula, but I like those songs and being a stupid brain-dead hairy I lap this sort of thing up. But here's the ground-breaking part; the opening bass part is only part is only played once before the guitar comes in... talk about pushing the boat out! But hey, this is rock 'n' roll; it doesn't need an alternative, you can't replace it and it doesn't need fucking angst and seven string guitars... you don't play Linkin Park at parties, do ya? Well, if you do I'm coming round to be sick in your bed. 'Buried Alive' is the fastest song here and though it doesn't quite cause internal bleeding like 'Sacrifice' did, it's a gem. You've got to admire the band for getting such a strong melody going at high velocity. It's actually similar to the excellent 'Down On Me' from Inferno, so another enjoyable retread with bounding riffs, but of a more subtle variety. 'The Thousand Names of God' actually is something a little different from the band, not that it's a disco song by any means. We haven't had any slide guitar from the band since the Rock 'N' Roll album (If my memory is correct) so that's a nice touch. It's one of Lemmy's more wordy exercises, in the vain of 'Orgasmatron' or 'Sacrifice', a great continuation of a theme. But these are just the standouts, Motörizer is a very solid album and enjoyable from start to finish.

So another great Motörhead record. Motörizer stays mean, stays clean and you certainly don't ask it where it's been. This is the best new record I've heard all year, no fucking two disc abominations or "Hey, they turned the snare back on" moments here. Motörizer gets better with each subsequent listen and has that hungry vitality that so many bands lack... if the new Metallica is this good, then I will actually refund everyone of you the hard-earned pocket money you spent on this.

Two years after Kiss of Death, and Motörhead are back like clockwork to unleash another slab of kick ass heavy metal: Motörizer.

The problem when reviewing a Motörhead album is that you have to state the obvious a lot. So here’s an early example: this album sounds very similar to the rest of their catalogue and makes no major departures from their signature sound. However, this album is more diverse than much of their recent output. The songs range from classic Motörheadbanging anthems (see Rock Out) to boot-stomping rock ‘n’ roll tunes (see English Rose, sister track to Kiss of Death’s Christine) to more grooving bluesy tracks (see One Short Life). These styles are all very similar and all something Motörhead has been doing for a while, but here they’ve collected all them all together and it works excellently.

Now as I said before, there are no major changes to the Motörhead sound. This is true; however, there are some minor ones. Motörizer is more melodic than some of their previous releases, but the added melody isn’t overbearing, or even that noticeable. All it serves to do is add an air of maturity to the album that shows that, even though they can and will behave like a bunch of wankers, they actually know what the fuck they’re doing on their instruments.

Speaking of which, the performances on Motörizer are phenomenal, as usual. What do you expect? Motörhead is a tight band that, and, while they have slowed down a bit (in tempo) with age, they’ve only become a tighter and all around better band as time goes on. Lemmy’s voice sounds better here than it ever has as he croaks lyrics that range from the perverse (Buried Alive) to the thought provoking (The Thousand Names of God) to the nonsensical (Runaround Man). His bass works fantastically well under Phil’s guitar. Listen closely and you’ll here that classic rumbling bass of his doing some interesting and slightly unorthodox things (one of the benefits of having Lemmy’s unique style and sound). Phil Campbell really stands out on this album, more so than he usual. He has a few solos that really showcase how good of a guitar player he actually is. He is the strong backbone of the band, and should be credited as such. Mikkey Dee sounds a bit different here than he has in the past; his style seems slightly simpler and generally less flashy. This does not, however, cause his performance lose any of its trademarked intensity. He is still “the best drummer in the world” as Lemmy likes to put it.

Cameron Webb is back as producer for the third [LOOK THIS UP] time and he does an excellent job, as usual. Inferno and Kiss of Death sounded virtually identical, but Motörizer sounds a bit different to my ears. It’s obvious it’s the same producer, but Phil’s guitar and Lemmy’s bass are more distinguished from eachother, rather than being one blurred noise as on a few tracks from the previous two albums. Lemmy’s bass is more prominent this time around, giving the guitar and bass equal roles in the mix.

This album defiantly rocks. All the tracks are stand out tracks, althoug the weakest link of the bunch is probably Heroes, which overstays its welcome by about 45 seconds. Additionally, didn’t love a few the first couple times I spun the album. Tracks like Back on the Chain or The Time is Right I considered to be just filler on the way to better tracks like The Thousand Names of God (excellent fucking song by the way, strongest Motörhead album closer in years), but after a while they grew on me quite a bit. Back on the Chain is actually one of my favorites these days. To me this album sounds like Kiss of Death meets Overnight Sensation meets Bastards. Enjoy metalheads and rejoice. The new Motörhead has finally arrived, and it is one of their most satisfying to date.

Well, Motorhead has done it again (like there was any doubt). This album is stock-full of old and new Motorhead alike; with lyrics that only Lemmy can make work. If you like Motorhead, you are going to fucking love this album and if you haven't really picked up a Motorhead album in awhile (or ever), then I suggest you fucking do so. You will not be disappointed.

As for the album, the production is top notch, Lemmy's voice feels fresh and unstoppable, the guitars and bass are perfect, and what can I say about Mikkey...this guy is fucking awesome; perfect for Motorhead. As usual, there is some heavy bass influence here (shocking, I know), especially on Teach You How To Sing The Blues. Most of the guitar work is actually done by Lemmy on the bass. There is even some old school shit in here (for you guys that love Overkill, etc.). Rock Out is the perfect example of this. Also, the choruses are classic Motorhead sing-along choruses. They are strong and each track on this disc has a memorable one. What can I say? They're perfect.

This album is quite diverse, as well. With songs like English Rose (that reminds me of the Another Perfect Day album), Heroes, The Time Is Right, and The Thousand Names Of God (all which remind me of the newer albums like Hammered and We Are Motorhead). There are some heavy tracks here (like the opening track) but nothing too intense like the guys did on the Inferno album.

I'm not going to lie here, this album has given me a new boost for Motorhead. There is not a single weak track here and the lyrical content is the usual feel-good sex, booze, ladies, and rock-n-roll that you expect from Lemmy. Of course, there is the occasional war/soldier song (the track Heroes fits in this category). Overall, this album fucking rocks. Leave a permanent spot open in your CD player and keep your IPod on Motorizer, because if you're a die-hard Motorhead like me, this baby's going to be spining for awhile.